The Origin of Sabbath | Origins | Part 6 | Scott Chapman

In Genesis, we learn that God created for six days, and on the seventh day, he rested. A quick reading of these verses may leave us thinking God was exhausted and needed a day to recuperate. But this interpretation doesn’t align with the bigger Biblical narrative that God is always at work and never tires or grows weary. So why did he rest?  The Hebrew word for rest here is sabat, where the word sabbath comes from. In sabat-ing, God was not resting for himself. Rather, he was setting up a pattern for living for all of humanity. God created time with a plan and intention for how we would use it. The literal interpretation of sabat is to cease working. Sabbath says to the world around you that you belong to God. The world may say that to cease working is wasting your time, but in the kingdom economy, this time invested will lead to holiness and yield a blessing.  When we observe the Sabbath as intended by God, we establish a life pattern where we work from a place of rest rather than resting from our work.